Sarlacc83 wrote:Unfortunately, it's too late to cast the original trio but damn what I would give to see them adapt Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy.

Edit: Fixed a typo.

The Heir to the Empire trilogy IS Episode 7 8 and 9 to me. I get that it's impossible now, and that really sucks, but to me that was the next inevitable part of the story presented in Lucas' original three.

pehawk wrote:Read a lil blurb where Terance Stamp (peaches body and appearence double) ripped Lucas for his direction in Star Wars. No one worked opposite Natalie - instead she was a spot on a greenscreen.

Who WASN'T a spot on a green screen? Pretty much the entire newer trilogy was filmed that way, and the fact that it made even actors we KNOW are good actors, like Liam Neeson, act poorly...Tells you a lot about depending on your entire cast sitting inside in front of a green screen.

pehawk wrote:Read a lil blurb where Terance Stamp (peaches body and appearence double) ripped Lucas for his direction in Star Wars. No one worked opposite Natalie - instead she was a spot on a greenscreen.

Lucas sucks.

Watch the Red Letter Media reviews of the prequels. They pretty thoroughly torch George Lucas for sitting behind monitors for pretty much the entire shoot while sometimes standing up to hand out basic directions before returning to his seat.

He's never been an "actor's director". Gave minimal guidance in Ep 4. Ep 5 was directed by a guy with a much better relationship with performers. Watching Portman in later movies left me stunned how little Lucas got out of her in the prequels.

I am a huge fan of Abrams even if I am not always a fan of his movies (Star Trek was awesome though- Montana you are on crack).

I don't know if he fits Star Wars per se. I think he'd be perfect for Indiana Jones but that series can't survive without Harrison Ford. The original Star Wars films always had a campy charm to it, and all 3 of the originals contained "alien horror" elements that helped give the universe a much more savage feel. In that sense, I think Star Wars would probably be more suited to someone like Peter Jackson or Sam Raimi who have experience with top end special effects and horror/monster genre stuff- and both even have a bit of the same horror-cheesiness that Lucas had before he started to suck. Like Jackson and Raimi, Abrams has some horror/monster film background which will go well with re-introducing the series to the weird but awesome bestiary of the original trilogy.

Bottom line, I don't think Disney could have done much better than Abrams. And if Abrams says no, and options 2,3,4, and 5 all say no, you might be down to guys like Michael Bay, or an unproven director that could prove an even bigger disaster. We all thought that Star Wars would become a joke. Maybe it still will. But at least Abrams gives us a solar flare of hope.

Also, I wouldn't expect Abrams to stick with Star Wars long. I'd say 3 movies, tops, probably 2. Disney wants to turn it into a James Bond type franchise, and as with long series like James Bond and Harry Potter, you can expect the director to change every couple of movies, even if the previous director did an awesome job.

kearly wrote:Also, I wouldn't expect Abrams to stick with Star Wars long. I'd say 3 movies, tops, probably 2. Disney wants to turn it into a James Bond type franchise, and as with long series like James Bond and Harry Potter, you can expect the director to change every couple of movies, even if the previous director did an awesome job.

Abrams will move on after two movies indeed, but it won't be just because of Disney keeping the rotation fresh. Abrams has ADD and can't stay focused on any one project for long. Leaves a trail of unfinished projects in his wake ("What About Brian", "Six Degrees", "Undercovers", "Alcatraz") and his successful ones get taken on by others.

And "Trek" was horribly forced writing and sheeny melodrama. I cannot fathom how so many smart media consumers on this board enjoyed that movie. It's like a body-snatchers conspiracy.

I'm not even going to argue. I don't have to. Based on what critics and audiences thought (95%, one of the highest Rotten Tomato scores of 2009, and one of the highest rated summer blockbusters ever), you might as well be Baghdad Bob on this one Brandon.

kearly wrote:I'm not even going to argue. I don't have to. Based on what critics and audiences thought (95%, one of the highest Rotten Tomato scores of 2009, and one of the highest rated summer blockbusters ever), you might as well be Baghdad Bob on this one Brandon.

All that shows is that 95% of critics don't understand what Trek is. There were plenty of critics, FWIW, who admitted as an aside that XI showed little depth or greater purpose and had a swiss cheese plot, but were apparently fine with that since it was a reboot. Curiosity, the suck of "Nemesis", and its reboot nature helped it a lot.

Once XII proves just as stupidly written and it starts sinking in with people that Abrams has little on his mind besides typical popcorn action and cheap emotion, I'll bet the critical honeymoon will die down considerably. Abrams might manage to keep the box office bubble going with the whole tired "it is Khan?" shtick, though you'll probably see more critics take shots at the movie purely out of annoyance over it.

If you want a more insightful review, read [url]http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090506/REVIEWS/905069997]Roger Ebert's dissenting opinion[/url]. Gives it a fair shake.

Montanahawk05, you must realize Star Trek has the most ubercritical fans in every culture on the planet and you are telling all 999 gagillion of them that they are wrong? At this point all i can think of is that your expectations were completely unrealistic. Saying that your opinion is in the minority is a massive understatement.

ShyCheetah wrote:Montanahawk05, you must realize Star Trek has the most ubercritical fans in every culture on the planet and you are telling all 999 gagillion of them that they are wrong? At this point all i can think of is that your expectations were completely unrealistic. Saying that your opinion is in the minority is a massive understatement.

Shy.

I know my opinion is in the minority. And I don't often go "screw everyone else, they're wrong" on things. But since we're talking about something that doesn't matter much, then I feel pretty comfortable in my opinion even if it is in the minority.

Well, Abrams was also assigned with reenergizing the base AND bringing in new audiences. Have to factor that in. That was accomplished. I think his 2nd one will be a lil more aligned with what we're accustom too.

I don't think we'll know if he REALLY brought in new audiences until we see the box office returns for XII, and see how much of XI's success was just curiosity. Of course, like I said, JJ's stupid "is it Khan?" campaign will probably keep the returns inflated.

HawkGA wrote:Of course Mark Hamil will be in the new ones. What else does he have to do, be the voice of the Joker some more?

I know, right? I can't imagine his plate is so full that he can't block off some time in the coming years to be part of something ridiculously huge, not to mention something that launched what career he has had.

Doug Baldwin took a hit to the head when he was younger and now can't remember how to drop a football. - SomersetHawk

nategreat wrote:As long as they don't bring back the actor who played R2-D2; he's probably grown taller since then.

Not likely. He was an adult when he played in the original trilogy and he played him again in the prequel trilogy some 20 years later. Psst...there are these people called little people who don't grow very much their entire lives.

Seahawk Sailor wrote:P.S.: looked for the old thread about J.J. Abrams directing it but couldn't find it. Think it's fallen past the edge of the .NET world. I'll merge this one with that if it's found.

nategreat wrote:As long as they don't bring back the actor who played R2-D2; he's probably grown taller since then.

Not likely. He was an adult when he played in the original trilogy and he played him again in the prequel trilogy some 20 years later. Psst...there are these people called little people who don't grow very much their entire lives.

Like Pehawk.

Doug Baldwin took a hit to the head when he was younger and now can't remember how to drop a football. - SomersetHawk

nategreat wrote:As long as they don't bring back the actor who played R2-D2; he's probably grown taller since then.

Not likely. He was an adult when he played in the original trilogy and he played him again in the prequel trilogy some 20 years later. Psst...there are these people called little people who don't grow very much their entire lives.

Seanhawk also logically rebutts jokes on TV to his wife. He's one of those types. What lucky lady your wife must be.

I hope they don't screw with EU canon. They should have their story take place after the Fate of the Jedi series. They could even determine the story for Vestara. Most importantly, don't have characters that don't exist in the EU at the time this film takes place.

RolandDeschain wrote:I hope they don't screw with EU canon. They should have their story take place after the Fate of the Jedi series. They could even determine the story for Vestara. Most importantly, don't have characters that don't exist in the EU at the time this film takes place.

If Jacen, Anakin, and Mara are alive and it takes place sometime after their deaths in the EU, I'll be very annoyed.

From what little I've heard (admittedly very little) the EU as it stands now will have very little bearing on what they do with these new movies. I do hope there's some consistency though. I'm not gonna be happy if they change everything. Gonna have to be one hell of a series to get away with that.